Why Opus Archimagicun is considered the hardest piece ever written for piano?

[ludwigvanchopin]

Did somebody know what are the main issue I you will need to face in this piece. I'm particulary reffering to the final movement(this one:

&index=1&ab_channel=toothlesstoe). Also do you think that elitè concert pianists(Hamelin, Kissin) would be able to give a performance of this piece?

(I'm sorry if I writed in the wrong category, I'm new on this forum)

[perfect_pitch]

Did somebody know what are the main issue I you will need to face in this piece.

Ostracising, alienating and completely offending the ears of your audience and having them walk out before the performance is done???   

[thalbergmad]

I once went to a live performance of the OC. I was desperate to get out and left at the intermission. I was not the only one.
I doubt if a top rank pianist would waste the time to learn this. It don't put bums on sets and it is completely unmarketable.
Thal

[jamienc]

Perhaps it is pertinent to state the old adage that “just because you can doesn’t mean you should…” But then again, the overall progression of piano repertoire is evidence that what is at one time deemed unplayable becomes standard repertoire over the course of time. Late Beethoven is a great example of this. However, the typical audience has a very low tolerance for music that lacks the immediate profundity in lieu of great technical display. I’m not going to say that audiences in the future won’t learn to love this music, but I don’t think the Hammerklavier or the Kreutzer will suffer any loss of audience favor for quite some time.

Who knows? Maybe Beethoven and Bach will fall the way of Obrecht and Ockeghem into semi-obscurity as new composers meet the ears of the slowly developing audience in 100 to 200 years from now. I’ll just say that I’m thrilled to be living in a time when Op. 111 and Gaspard are still the goals of studying pianists who wish to not only display technical skill at the keyboard, but at the same time can satisfy an audience with music with which they walk away feeling as if they have not been completely dumbfounded by the content. To me, the music of Sorabji is like watching a 2-1/2 hour foreign film without subtitles. But I love Beethoven and Chopin, so…there ya go!

[ahinton]

Whilst it might be thought rude to answer a question with another question, the only sensible answer to "why?" would nevertheless appear to be "why not?". This work might well not be to everyone's taste, but then nor are the works of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. It is considered the hardest piece ever written for the piano by those who consider it to be so. Were that to be everyone's view, why would anyone have prepared a typeset edition of its score and why would Tellef Johnson be preparing at his own expense a recording of it for what I understand to be imminent release? Thal's view of OC is not a value judgment but a personal statement that it does not accord to his taste in piano music, about which there is and indeed can be no problem; the pianist on that occasion (I was present myself) was Jonathan Powell who has given 10 public performances of it over the past 20 years - and I believe that even Thal held his performance in high regard, irrespective of his take on the music itself.

[perfect_pitch]

This work might well not be to everyone's taste, but then nor are the works of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.

Yes, but in your sense you are comparing apples with... well, a very rotten bushel of apples.

Not everyone likes Beethoven, Chopin or Bach but I guarantee you theres a ton of people who like the music of either of those composers over the sound of Opus whatever.

Who knows? Maybe Beethoven and Bach will fall the way of Obrecht and Ockeghem into semi-obscurity as new composers meet the ears of the slowly developing audience in 100 to 200 years from now.

Hopefully that never happens... that's just my opinion. I think if anything - the music of Zimmer and Williams will join the great composers of the past with just as much admiration. Think about it - a lot of the musical film compositions follow almost all of the same harmonic progressions Liszt was doing over 150 years ago.

For me however, I sense Medieval music will fall by the wayside.

[pianopro181]

Whilst it might be thought rude to answer a question with another question, the only sensible answer to "why?" would nevertheless appear to be "why not?". This work might well not be to everyone's taste, but then nor are the works of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. It is considered the hardest piece ever written for the piano by those who consider it to be so. Were that to be everyone's view, why would anyone have prepared a typeset edition of its score and why would Tellef Johnson be preparing at his own expense a recording of it for what I understand to be imminent release? Thal's view of OC is not a value judgment but a personal statement that it does not accord to his taste in piano music, about which there is and indeed can be no problem; the pianist on that occasion (I was present myself) was Jonathan Powell who has given 10 public performances of it over the past 20 years - and I believe that even Thal held his performance in high regard, irrespective of his take on the music itself.

Anyone who openly states that they do not like the works of Bach aren’t worth reasoning with, period.

[jamienc]

For me however, I sense Medieval music will fall by the wayside.

Yes, and it has. I totally agree with everything you posted but I have to wonder if in the semi-distant future, the ears will hear the music of the Baroque and Classical periods the same way we hear music of the Renaissance and prior. Granted, the music since the Renaissance has progressed by leaps and bounds in both musical language and technical requirements, but I wonder if the classics we hold so dear will become (heaven forbid) “boring” because they have been learned/performed ad nauseum and the music of the present will become the new stage repertoire that is heard more often than Bach/Beethoven.

The technical and musical achievements of performers across the globe with our beloved composers of the classical and romantic period have become so ubiquitous that I wonder if people will simply move on to the new works being composed as a means to testing the limits of both physical and musical capabilities in much the same manner that Liszt and Chopin had done back when the instrument was undergoing its enhancements in engineering and breadth. Since we haven’t had too many developments in the instrument itself in the past 150 years or so, I’m thinking the limits are now skewing toward the musical and technical side. The music of Sorabji kind of proves that in a way…